New Federal Policy Illegal, According to National Legal Expert, ASBL Reports

Professor Tiefer's legal opinion is titled, "Proposed Regulations Illegally Authorize 'Strategic Sourcing' to Massively Reduce the Breadth of Contracting With Small Business."

Tiefer is a Professor of Government Contracts at the University of Baltimore Law School. He was Commissioner from 2008 to 2011 on the Congressionally chartered independent Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan and is also a contributor at Forbes.com.

Professor Tiefer's legal opinion states, "The House Small Business Committee has held, in recent years, a number of hearings on how strategic sourcing would affect small businesses, with impressive witnesses warning against letting it injure small business contracting. The witnesses warned the unmanaged strategic sourcing may push large numbers of small businesses out of the federal procurement market and possibly even out of business especially when done as the proposed rules would."

Professor Tiefer states, "…both Congress and the Supreme Court instruct agencies to provide small business with 'the maximum practicable opportunity' for federal contracting…" He goes on to say, "The Proposed 'Strategic Sourcing' Rules Must, But Do Not, Provide Small Businesses with 'the Maximum Practicable Opportunity' for Federal Contracting."

His conclusion states, "The proposal should be junked. It would have an overwhelmingly bad impact on the breadth of small business contracting, contrary to the intent of the small business laws."

The American Small Business League (ASBL) has mounted a national campaign to oppose the GSA's FSSI policy proposal. The ASBL is evaluating the filing of a federal injunction to block the implementation of the FSSI policy.

The ASBL currently has two cases against the government in the federal courts to halt policies that have harmed small business contracting and subcontracting opportunities. Mother Jones recently published an article on the ASBL's legal battles with the federal government.

ASBL President Lloyd Chapman stated, "A recent study by the World Bank found the United States is 49^th world wide in the ease of starting a new small business. If you want to start a new business it would be easier if you moved to Morocco, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Latvia, Macedonia or Lithuania. All available data show small business creation in America has completely stalled out. Our economy is growing at record low rates. Small Businesses create over 90% of the net new jobs so it's no wonder our middle class economy is withering under an unrelenting barrage of anti-small business legislation and policies coming out of Washington."

Contact: Jeanne Spatola
[email protected]
925-255-3658

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SOURCE American Small Business League

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